Los Angeles— United Teachers Los Angeles has launched a new phase of the “We Are Public Schools” campaign that includes more than 75 billboards across LA. One billboard features Donald Trump and posted the same day he attacked teachers and called public schools “failed government schools” in his State of the Union speech.
UTLA is horrified by the dumping of airline fuel on neighborhoods in Southeast and South LA. These great communities, the residents of which have contributed so much to Los Angeles and surrounding cities, have historically borne the brunt of many environmentally racist policies and practices. We have been working with the district to ensure that additional cleaning, health, and mental health staff are available for these schools on an ongoing basis.
One year ago today, UTLA members stepped onto the picket line and into history, leading the largest educator strike in the US. When we showed up to our schools that first rainy morning, we knew we had put in the organizing work to win — but we did not yet know how successful our strike would be...
United Teachers Los Angeles, the second-largest teachers’ local in the country, is proud to endorse Senator Bernie Sanders for US President in the 2020 Primary Election, making UTLA the first teachers’ union in the country to endorse a presidential candidate.
We keep seeing the positive impacts of our strike. Take a moment and feel pride in your days in the rain on the picket line. Lisa Bennett is a special education teacher, UTLA chapter chair, and an LAUSD Teacher of the Year. She teaches at Van Gogh School, one of those closest to the Saddleridge fire. Lisa and others across the San Fernando Valley were incensed by LAUSD’s flat-footedness in responding to the fire. Schools should have been closed and should have remained closed until they were rigorously cleaned and the air quality improved. LAUSD needs a plan, developed with stakeholders, for fire safety in the future.
Starting at 5 a.m. this morning, UTLA reached out to district personnel to close all impacted schools in the Valley. Instead of closing campuses immediately, district officials told more than 10,000 educators and tens of thousands more students and parents that schools were open for business and they were expected to navigate toxic fire and smoke conditions.
Parents and teachers will rally outside Van Gogh Elementary on Granada Hills on Tuesday afternoon to protest LAUSD's lack of leadership during the Saddleridge fire. After the district sent a memo claiming that all sites had been deep-cleaned and were safe, Van Gogh staff and students arrived Monday morning to find ash on classroom floors, black particles on desks, and the oppressive smell of smoke in every building.
United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) stands in solidarity with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and SEIU Local 73 in the wake of their strike authorization votes after months of fruitless contract negotiations with new Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago School Board. Last week 94% of CTU members voted in favor of a strike. Educators could walk off the job and onto the picket lines as soon as October 7.
LOS ANGELES — With four LAUSD School Board seats up for election in 2020, UTLA has endorsed a powerful team to take back the board majority from the pro-privatization forces. As overwhelmingly approved by the UTLA House of Representatives last night, the UTLA slate includes incumbents George McKenna, Scott Schmerelson, and Jackie Goldberg — fresh off her landslide win in the special election last spring.
UTLA is moving forward with a unique process to help shape the U.S. presidential race by engaging members over the next eight weeks and conducting an advisory vote of chapter leaders to consider endorsing Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party primary. After that up-or-down advisory vote at the November 13 area meetings, the UTLA House will make the final decision on endorsement.
